Antec p180 Fan Configuration

[GimpyFuzznut]

That's a nice looking setup. Pretty much what I had in mind... although that is is a REAL tight squeeze on the RAM.

Heh, you setup is pretty close to mine soon to be. I have the same mobo and PSU and an Opteron 165. Hoping I can push the speeds up there easy without temperature problems. I'll let you know which cooler I end up going with. Thanks for the great info!

 

[kruull]

Originally posted by: keldog7
Since the HS doesn't actually push air downwards, I thought it best to point the airflow at the MB heatsink...that puts the fan on the RAM side of things. The fan will apparently only fit in a PUSH direction - though I didn't actually examine it to try the PULL direction. Here's a few pics to see the fit... Ive got a ton more, if you want to see some other aspect of this setup. The pics I'm showing display the FIT near the ram more than anything.
I think the Zalman might be better - both in terms of fit and airflow over the MB. On the other hand, the Zalman is noisier (without a 92mm fan swap) and less effective as a cooler than the Ninja.

+2c avrg is not what i would call less effective - depends on what u want to cool + what fan u'r using with the Ninja (this is a great + for the Ninja)

 

[kruull]

Originally posted by: HO

Originally posted by: McPudd

Originally posted by: pulsedrive
Also you might want to patch up the grill where the VGA cooler was, so that Dust can't get in their either.

The grille should be taped over also to prevent hot air being evacuated by the PSU, (possiblly a Video card) and rear exhaust fan from being recycled back into the case.

Putting tape over that grille dropped my CPU temps by 3C. Well worth the little time it took.

Have to try that trick my self too: i wonder if it helps my temps as well... let ya guyz know (first i have to install my Zalman 9500)

 

[Hauk]

I agree the air duct is useless for air channeling. I taped off those case holes in fact to allow the front filters to do their job.

I'm curious about leaving the duct in, no fan installed. Was thinking about an empty room with no furniture, how sound echos more than a room with furniture. Would it help dampen noise just sitting there?

I'm moving from a beige Antec SX840 of about the same size. Loved that case. But now that everything on my desktop is black and silver... :beer:

 

[Ichinisan]

I have an Abit AN8-SLI with a passive heatpipe-cooled chipset. This mobo exhausts it through a special IO shield with a wire mesh that extends from the port area of the PC. With two monster fans exhausting on either side of it, I worry that there is probably very much negative pressure there and hot air is re-entering or the chipset's heat is stagnating and building up. I have no testing equipment and such, but I just don't see how the heatpipe could possibly be exhausting like it should with the P180's airflow config. Any suggestions beyond "buy the Fatal1ty version with it's chipset fan + heatpipe exhaust"?

 

[McPudd]

Hi:
You could remove the blowhole fan, remove its grille, duct tape the opening, replace the grille
and mount the fan where the filtered mount is in front of the upper chamber HDD cage.

You could then consider this HSF.
Zalman CNPS9500 LED Copper CPU Heat Sink 92MM Fan 1350-2600RPM
18-27.5DBA W/Blue LED
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=165&code=005009
It will blow air through your heatsink rad and then through the upper rear
120mm fan.
The 3 fans should quietly work together to move a lot of filtered air over and
through the hot components in your case.

If you don't want to do this, just buy an extra 120x25mm fan for the extra
front mount.
In either case, remove the useless VGA duct, use clear duct tape to tape over the
remaining holed grille to keep dust from entering the case.

Happy trailz,

 

[Throwmeabone]

Having the top fan blow into the case reduced my cpu and motherboard tempeartures by 4-5 degrees. I'll just have to clean out the dust more often but its not a big deal.

 

[Ichinisan]

Originally posted by: McPudd
Hi:
You could remove the blowhole fan, remove its grille, duct tape the opening, replace the grille
and mount the fan where the filtered mount is in front of the upper chamber HDD cage.

You could then consider this HSF.
Zalman CNPS9500 LED Copper CPU Heat Sink 92MM Fan 1350-2600RPM
18-27.5DBA W/Blue LED
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=165&code=005009
It will blow air through your heatsink rad and then through the upper rear
120mm fan.
The 3 fans should quietly work together to move a lot of filtered air over and
through the hot components in your case.

If you don't want to do this, just buy an extra 120x25mm fan for the extra
front mount.
In either case, remove the useless VGA duct, use clear duct tape to tape over the
remaining holed grille to keep dust from entering the case.

Happy trailz,

Thanks! Because the stock retail HSF is enough for my desired overclock, I'm not looking for extreme or expensive or super-quiet cooling. Otherwise, it's perfect. Is there a much cheaper side-venting HSF? I'd like to get one with the fan or airflow escaping as low to the board as possible (That's where the mobo's heapipe vents are). Heh, it's weird that I'm basing an HSF purchase on the mobo/case combination instead of what I need for the CPU

 

[sygyzy]

Can someone please list a breakdown of all the fan location, sizes, and whether they should be blowing in or out, including HSF (as it works in conjunction with the case).

For example:

Front Fan - 120mm x 38mm - Blowing into the case - Medium Fan Setting (if using stock fan)

I know there are opinions, but at least if I we could get the facts listed (ie fan size), it'd make things alot easier.

 

[pulsedrive]

All the fans are 120mm except for the optional VGA duct fan, which you really don't want to use anyway. Just take the duct out and tape up the holes. The fans are one exhaust in the rear, one exhaust on top, one intake in the front of the upper ompartment, and one intake in the middle of the lower compartment. As for configuration, I personally have all 4 fans mounts with antec tricools all set to the lowest settings. That still moves enough air that everything is cool enough, and quiet enough that really the only noise I hear is my CPU HSF when it spins up while playing games, and my NB fan, because I have a K8N Plat, which is notoriously loud.

Edit for placement of fans.

 

[McPudd]

sygyzy:

Well my main rig is finally assembled. What you are asking is contained
in the following final arrangement ... at least for what I did.
The case is reasonably cool at idle/light work and fan speeds minimized,
very quiet and all incoming air is filtered.
I'm about to build an MCE2205 system with the same parts but adding a
tuner card, differnt burner and externals.

Antec P180

My setup for air-flow/cooling/heat dissipation.

I use a Thermaltake Hardcano13 5.25in drive bay fan controller to control the
speed of my 3 120mm case fans and monitor the temperature of three heat sources.

Upper Chamber:
I removed the 2 supplied 120x25mm Antec TriCool 4pin only fans.
I mounted a 120x25mm TriCool 3/4pin fan (#1) in front of the upper (driveless)
HDD cage and set it to (but not necessarily used at) HIGH drawing filtered air IN.
Temperature Probe #1 monitors the SB chip.

Another 120x25mm TriCool 3/4pin fan (#2) is mounted in the upper rear of the
case and again is set to (but not necessarily used at) HIGH venting air OUT.
Temperature Probe #2 monitors the NB chip.

I removed the Antec VGA duct and clear duct taped over the remaining holed
opening to prevent dust from entering and hot air from the rear area of case
being recycled back into the case.

My motherboard has no chipset fan (heatpipe) so no turbulence from that.

My ATI X1800XT?s 92mm fan exhausts its air/heat OUT of the case.
(Intake yes but turbulence no). I clear duct taped over the areas of the card?s
I/O vent grille not covered by cooler vent housing.

I use a Zalman CNPS9500 HSF. Its 92mm speed adjustible fan draws air in from the
case?s upper interior area (especially from my RAM sticks), though its own
heatpipe, onto the Asus mainboard's heatpipe cooling fins and into the upper rear
Antec TriCool fan venting OUT of the case.
The Zalman HSF FanMate2 controller is mounted in front on the cover of the second
from top empty 5.25? drive bay below the Hardcano13 fan controller.

After I removed the blowhole fan, I clear duct taped over the meshed opening and replaced the grille.
I did this to prevent 1) an excessive negative air-pressure build up in the case which invites dust entering from unfiltered, unsealed areas; 2) the wind-tunnel effect of the front/Zalman/rear fans from being inrefered with and 3) interior case noise coming from a vent where it would be quite audible.

Lower Chamber:
The supplied Antec TriCool 120x38mm intake fan (#3) is set to (but not necessarily used at) HIGH and draws air IN through lower front filter, pulls air around 2x500GB Seagate 7200.9 SATA2.5 HDDs; then pushes air around/through an Enermax Liberty modular 620W PSU and OUT of the case.
The PSU has a quiet, smart (speed controlled by need) 120mm fan that exhausts
air OUT of the case. Temperature Probe #3 monitors the PSU.

Interior components not specifically mentioned above:
Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo
Asus A8N32-SLI Deluxe nForce4 SLI X16
Corsair XMS-3500LL PRO 2GB kit
Plextor PX-716AL Double/Dual DVD±R/RW CD-R/RW E-IDE slot load burner
Mitsumi FDD.

By the way, the P180 comes with a 120x38mm 4pin only the Lower Chamber mounted between the PSU and lower HDD cage configured to draw air IN through the lower front filter. Also, out of the box, there are 2 120x25mm TriCool 4pin only fans set to
exhaust air OUT of the case and are located at the blowhole and upper rear of the Upper Chamber.
There is no fan mounted behind the middle front filter in front of the Upper Chamber HDD cage. The mounting is there/ready for a 120x25mm fan which should be set to draw air IN.
How one sets the speeds depends on your internals and tolerence of noise.
The fans are quiet. There are quieter fans around but they tend to move less air. Trade-off.
I try to make sure that case fans balance out for a slight positive internal pressure.
Dust collecting around unused I/O covers indicates negative for one.
Specs on the speed, noise and air-flow levels of the included fans are here:
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=81800# >Manuals.
Specs on the substitutions I made are here:
120mm Antec TriCool 120 DBB fan 4pin/3pin 761345-75121-6
http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=75080
Also: Thermaltake Hardcano 13 5.25in Multi Function drive bay
controllers w/6 IN 1 card reader & LCD disp. Part #: A2259
http://www.thermaltake.com/accessories/a2259hardcano13/a2259hardcano13.htm
Zalman CNPS9500 LED Copper CPU Heat Sink 92MM Fan 1350-2600RPM
18-27.5DBA W/Blue LED
http://www.zalman.co.kr/eng/product/view.asp?idx=165&code=005009

Happy trailz,

 

[Jazzatola]

If you did want to replace the lower fan is there any reason why you couldn't use a 25mm rather than the thicker 38mm?

 

[McPudd]

Jazzatola:

If you search the P180 threads you'll see pix from others who have done just that.
Some had to due to the depth of a fanless PSU or a modular PSU where the external
connectors just take up too much space.
Others have removed it completely feeling their PSU pulls enough air to cool their HDDs,
or they don't have HDDs in the lower chamber at all to cool.
I was ok with an Enermax Liberty modular, the 38mm fan and 2 HDDs down there.
The thicker fan does allow for the quiet movement of more air at less RPM than a .25mm
one.

Happy trailz,